Holiday...

"Hey, would you like to drive to DC during the Lunar New Year with me and my boyfriend?" - asked Hin.
"I can't, I have to work." - I replied knowing that I would definitely regret it later. I wanted to go very badly.
With the last effort trying to convince me joining the trip, she said: "come on, you haven't celebrated it in years..." Nonetheless, I couldn't go!
It was very kind of her to ask me, but she was wrong about one thing: I celebrate it very year. Although it's true that I haven't done it with anybody else since I went abroad, the Tet's (Vietnamese for Lunar New Year) is a holiday that no Vietnamese would ever want to skip.
According to the lunar calendar, people in China, Vietnam, Thailand and etc. have a different but special new year. It comes around the end of January or the beginning of February in the standard calendar. This year, the New Year's Eve falls on January 28th. In this post, however, I don't want to give it away immediately because we have two more weeks to count down. Instead, I will tell you what comes before the holiday, which is in no way less important than the Tet itself. It is the farewell to the Gods of Kitchens.
The story goes far, far back that no one could even remember exactly when it happened. They could only remember that in a small village in the northern Vietnam, there lived a loving couple. It could have been a forever happy home if they hadn’t been too poor. They tried and tried so hard but nothing got better. So one day, the husband told his wife that he would leave to do business far way, and promise to come back within three years. In tears, they separated. One year, two years, then three years had passed by but the wife never heard anything from her husband. She cried days and nights for her broken heart. Few more years went by before she finally agreed to get married again. Her new husband, who loved her with all his heart, promised to take utmost care of her and be with her forever. She loved him dearly and for all it worth, they lived happily together…
However, love stories always ended up in tragedy. Their tragedy started in one cloudy afternoon, when the new husband was out for hunting. There she was taking care of the house when her ex-husband suddenly showed up. He was skinny, old, and exhausted. All the unsuccessful business had taken the best out of him. Now he stood there, in front of her doors looking at her. She realized it was him almost immediately and couldn’t hide the surprise on her face. They ran into each other, hugged, cried and talked to each other about all they had been through. But before they could tell the other about their new lives, her husband was coming home. Knowing not what to say, she could only hide the poor man into the heap of straw in the backyard. Unfortunately, while she was still trying to figure out what to say, her new husband wanted to grill the fresh animal he just hunted. He went ahead and set fire on the heap of straw. The poor man was afraid that if he came out, he would embarrass the wife. Thus, he calmly recieved his death. No sooner as the wife realized what happened, she cried out loud and desperately jumped into the fire. Without thinking twice, her husband followed her just so he could keep his promise. Even though they couldn’t live together, they died together. People would then always talk about them as the greatest love...
Meanwhile, the King of Heaven from above witnesses their story and sympathized with their faithfulness. Thus, he gave them the privileged to be together forever. Since then, the three of them became the Gods of the Kitchen, who in the King’s name present in every house’s kitchen and help others become as happy as they were. Every year, on the twenty-third day of the last month of the year, they would all fly back to heaven and tell the King stories they observe on earth…
And that is why we have a special farewell celebration for them every year on this exact date…
-nxh